The traditional custodians of the land on which we walk live and learn - the Bullongin, Koombumerri and Yugambeh speaking peoples - and their Elders past, present and emerging.

Dear mums, dads, carers and colleagues

I hope that everyone is enjoying the lovely weather this weekend.  Learning Week 7 begins tomorrow.

School COVID numbers continue to rise sharply

Since I last wrote to you (Friday evening), I have been informed of even more positive cases of COVID.  Most of these extra cases apply to staff and currently I know of 15 staff who are affected this week.  This is a massive number affected and we will do our best to replace these teachers - but I do not expect this to be possible in every case on every day.  These staff are each away for 5 days.  I expect this to extend further if their children become positive as well.  

This growth follows the relaxation of restrictions - and in particular the wearing of face masks.  With 10 school days remaining this term, I expect this number to grow further.  This worries me greatly as the term has already seen significant interruption and this will be added to further.   

Accurate student numbers are anyone's guess and we can only use the numbers that are reported to us.  

The Year 5 and 6 classes are most affected with about 20 students reported as positive.  If you have children in these year levels, please monitor their health closely and test if they display symptoms.  If they are positive, they will need to remain at home for 7 days.  Please let us know if they test positive so we can maintain the accuracy of school rolls.  

We will be stringent with our health assessments at school.  Any symptoms means we will need to contact families for collection and testing.  We will provide the RAT.  

Year 6 camp is 8 days away.  A single positive test result on camp means that everyone who has not been COVID positive in the past 28 days, becomes a close contact (7 days isolation with a COVID test on Day 6) and camp ends immediately and we all need to return home. We will contact all Year 6 families this week with our plan for camp.

School will remain open for the next two weeks

Despite the sharp rise in positive cases, school will remain open.  If your children are well and show NO COVID symptoms and are not a close contact, I will need them to attend. 

We have a another special day on Friday with another free dress day.  

Kind regards

Vic

• National dress or
• National colours

• Speak with your teacherts about coming in to speak about your country of origin
• Make Friday lunch your national dish.